


Thoughts of Persuasion and Surprising Gifts

by IvyCpher



Category: Alice in Wonderland (Movies - Burton)
Genre: Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Hats, Mentioned Cheshire Cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:14:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22285426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IvyCpher/pseuds/IvyCpher
Summary: Alice makes Hatter a hat!
Relationships: Tarrant Hightopp & Alice Kingsleigh
Comments: 5
Kudos: 23





	Thoughts of Persuasion and Surprising Gifts

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't read this in a shippy way, I beg of you

When Tarrant had arrived home after a day at the traveling flavorchem craft market with bundles of neatly packaged bolts fabrics with patterns ranging from garish to elegant, he wasn't much surprised to see Alice-  _ the  _ Alice sitting in the main room with various fabric scraps and cuttings gathered around her like confetti. Both of those things were normal as of late, or as normal as things could possibly be in Underland, which was not normal at all.

A curious look crossed Tarreant's face and he put down the fabric he had bought. He looked over Alice's shoulder, in her hands she was fidgeting with multicolored strips of fabric that clashed beautifully over two twisted wires. He cocked his head to the side, "My dear- just what are you doing?"

Alice turned around and flashed Tarrant a smile, her eyes sparkled in that simply Alice way that always meant a hundred different good things and improbable thoughts nearly figured out, "Sewing. Well," She turned back to her unfinished creation in her hands. "Well I will be sewing soon, I'm just trying to get the colours sorted out."

"Oh," A smile crossed Tarrant's face, "What are you sewing then?"

"Just a hat."

"I'm sure it will be a lovely hat then! I'm so happy to see you taking an interest in my trade!" Tarrant gasped as a wonderful thought filled his mind, "What if you became my apprentice?" He asked quickly, "I could show you how to make everything from bowlers and pork pies to ushankas and chullos!"

A delighted giggled escaped Alice's lips, "What a wonderfully mad idea, though I don't know if I'm fit to be your apprentice. My mother always said that even my needlepoint was second rate, I don't know how good I'll be at making hats."

"Oh, well I hope I don't look like your mother then." Laughed Tarrant harder than he should have considering that his quip wasn't that funny. "If you even try the smallest bit at something," He said breathlessly after his laughter died down, "You'll have to power to improve your skills at it."

Alice's smile widened, "Thank you, Hatter," She said softly. Then after a moment, "More and more you say things that wouldn't of been odd for my father to say."

"And what would've been an odd thing for you father to say?" Tarrant asked, feeling like an electric shock had twisted down his spine at Alice comparing him to her father even in the slightest.

"Hmm," Alice tapped her cheek softly, then giggled, "'Snakes are expected to wear hoop skirts and hunting dogs must be fit in trousers and bonnets,'".

Clapping his hands together Tarrant laughed again, "Delightful! Now that it's spoken it's bound to happen, Underland is quite funny about that. Any odd thing dared to be imagined and spoken turns to be truth quicker than the spin of a coin!" He grinned and picked up his newly bought fabric, "And now I leave you with that information, I expect exciting things full of muchness out of your imagination! And your hat too of course," With a bit of a struggle considering all the bolts of fabric in his arms, he pointed to the hat-in-the-making that Alice was working on. "Chess has finally driven me to make him a hat similar to mine- not exactly like mine though, a proper hatter never makes duplicates. He just won't let me have a moment free of him until I finish it." With a shake of his head, Tarrant puffed out a sigh and tread upstairs, just barely managing to keep all and any of the fabric from falling out of his arms.

As soon as he got to the top of the stairs to his main work room, Tarrant hung the new bolts of fabric on golden giant hooks on the walls. He looked over his workspace, it was muddled and messy and had many projects lying about in various stages of completion. He grabbed one of the unfinished hats, the one for Chess. The base was done and that was about it. He still had much to go but it wouldn't take long, an evening of steady working at most. But as much as Tarrant wanted to finish the hat so that Chess would stop pestering him, he couldn't find himself in the right mind to sit down and do it. No, his mind was lost (as it often was), a balloon floating in the sky above his body and being blown away by the breeze.

He was just too excited about Alice trying out his trade to actually think of well- his trade.

Underland had never been the same since Alice had left the first time when she was but a girl. And after she left a second time after she defeated the jabberwocky, Underland had changed back, not completely like how it used to be but almost better. Now that Alice was back, however, Underland was nothing  _ but  _ better. Tarrant loved having Alice around, he just hoped that this time that she would stay. Her finding an interest in becoming a hatter and becoming his apprentice seemed like the most sure way to have her stay.

When Alice was around it was almost as if the milk never soured and the sky never cracked under the intense gaze of the sun. Like even the flowers in their worst of arguments could still sing sweetly about one another and that the earth grew new people not to fight wars but to befriend and to chat with one another. And when Alice was around, Tarrant never found himself in the midst of any type of creative droughts. He felt that with her around that he always designed his best hats.

All of that, for sure, in Underland's topsy-turvy way of certainty had to mean that Alice belonged there in Underland with the rest of them. That she was made to live in Underland. Or at least Tarrant hoped.

With his mind lost in the very thoughts of Alice and all such other things related to her, Tarrant failed to notice the sun's light slowly sinking in the sky, throwing shadows into his room. For what had to be at least an hour he had stood in the center of his workshop, holding his unfinished project for Chess and not even noticing that more than a minute had passed him by. The only thing to bring him out of his own mind was the sound of footsteps climbing up the stairs. Tarrant jumped upon hearing the creaking noise of the hair and nearly crushed the base of the hat that he was supposed to be working on. His eyes darted to the mouth of the stairs and his shoulders stiffened, but upon only seeing Alice he immediately relaxed.

Alice wore a shifty grin, her pale blonde hair falling into her eyes as she climbed the final step. She held both of her hands behind her back and looked like she was on the verge of revealing a wonderfully funny story. "Hello, Hatter," She said, her smile only managing to grow.

"Hello, Alice," Tarrant smiled. Then he noticed the shadows on the floor and turned to the window, "Call me mad but I think I just played statue for the better part of the evening, I haven't moved since I came up here. Can you believe it?" He asked, turning back to Alice.

"You're mad," With a shake of her head, Alice raised a hand from behind her back to push her hair out of her face. Tarrant was starting to become curious to what she was hiding but he didn't say a word about it. "And I can, you have a habit of getting lost in your mind, but so do I; so I suppose it's a rather normal thing for people who've lost themselves to do. Were you daydreaming or just lost in white space? White space isn't nearly as fun as daydreaming."

With a flick of his wrist, Tarrant tossed Chess' unfinished commission on to his cluttered beyond compare work table. He could finish it later that evening, or maybe even tomorrow, just sometime when his mind was lost in his work and not in his thoughts. "Daydreaming," He nodded. "I must agree it's better than white space- it's sometimes hard to pull yourself out of white space."

"So it is…" Alice bit her lip, her smile falling slightly. "I've got something for you, Hatter."

"An un-birthday present?" Tarrant teased, "Oh, how did you remember?"

With a snort that fell into laughter Alice shook her head again and strolled over to Tarrent, "I've just got a memory for dates," She said playing along with his joke. Finally only a few small steps away from him she removed both of her hands from behind her back. In her hands she held a hat, the hat that she had to have been working on earlier. It was an orange suede top hat with an ornamental yellow and purple pattern seemingly shimmering and dancing across the orange fabric. The base of the hat was trimmed with a white lace that if any longer would've been a proper veil. The edges were off and the sewing was crooked and double done. The glue had to have been not even fully dry and the top of the hat was slanted and looked like it wasn't the same measurement all the way around.  _ It was beautiful. _

"I hope-" Alice started but Tarrant cut her off.

"Alice, my dear, this is the most sensational piece of headgear I have ever seen!" Tarrant smiled so widely that he could've put even Chess to shame. "And for your first piece too! I doubt even my first had was this good." He couldn't remember the last time he had gotten a gift, let alone one so wonderful such as this one from Alice, but Tarrant would have traded never receiving another gift again just to keep that hat. 

A heavy blush overcame Alice's cheeks and her eyes sparkled, "It's not as good as any of yours though, you're just saying that."

Tarrant took off his old had and put it down on his work table, "What other way is there to speak but by saying things?" He asked as Alice put the new hat on his head. The base was slightly too large and it slipped down his forehead but he loved it all the same. "The only person who you should compare your work to is your past self, because no one has a style like yourself." He grinned.

"That is the sanest advice you've ever given me, but also the best." Alice smiled and then without warning she threw her arms around Tarrent and hugged him. "You really like it?" She asked quietly as his arms wrapped around her, returning her hug.

"My dear," Tarrant said, "I'm absolutely  _ mad  _ for it."

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea just floating around my brain and haunting my folder of ideas forever! And I finally got to write it! I hope it's in character, I haven't seen Through the Looking Glass in years and I only had the first movie on DVD...
> 
> Comments are very much appreciated!!!


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